Crossing Indiana

In the morning we rode our bikes on the National Road Heritage Trail. We got on the trail at the Twigg Rest Stop not far from our campsite in Hawthorne Park on the east edge of Terre Haute. We rode in to downtown Terre Haute as close as we could get to the Wabash River. Round trip was about 14 miles.

Later we visited the Eugene V. Debs museum in his former house on 8th Street. Two tour guides added commentary on the house and its contents as they walked us through the house. We were surprised that there was not more information offered up on Debs's life and work.


















On Firday, the 12th, we traveled from Springfield, OH, to Terre Haute, IN. Along the way we stopped for a sandwich at the US 40 Diner in Plainfield, Indiana. Lee has seen the diner advertised on line as an historic sight on the National Road (Route US 40). The web site said that the diner had gone out of business. We were surprised to see an "Open" sign on the place as we drove by, so we turned around and went back. We shared a grilled chicken sandwich with cole slaw and French fries, with a real ice cream milk shake for desert.
















We stopped for the night at Indy Lakes Campground just south of the loop highway around Indianapolis. This is not much of a place. The central attraction seemed to be an artificial but allegedly well-stocked fishing lake. We got the impression that the business gets most of its income from fishing, with camping available as mainly for the benefit of fisherman who want to fish in the campground's lake.
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National Museum of the United States Air Force

Today's highlight was a visit to the National Museum of the United States Air Force, which is located at Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton. We arrived at 10 a.m. and left at 5 p.m.--and still didn't see everything. After we spent almost two hours in the hall devoted to the planes of the early 1900s, we realized we were going to miss a lot of interesting aircraft if we didn't speed up a bit.

We enjoyed walking through four presidential aircraft (Air Force Ones). We saw the spot on Kennedy's plane that was modified to hold his coffin after his assassination in Dallas. On a brighter note, we enjoyed see that the museum has planes designed by Northrop Grumman, the company that sends Ken his pension check each month. That includes two airplanes with stealth technology--Tacit Blue, built to prove out the technology, and the B-2, the first operational stealth bomber. A new display, opening just last month, is a Northrop unmanned air vehicle that has flown combat missions. This RQ-4A Global Hawk flew more than 4,800 hours and provided hundreds of thousands of images in support of U.S. forces around the world.

Us with one of the Northrop products--the YF-23 fighter.

The museum has an IMAX theater that was showing three different movies at various times during the day. We saw a show on a fighter pilot's experience with what the Air Force calls Red Flag--the training program in which pilots get accustomed to combat by engaging in mock combat against a specially-trained fighter squadron. Ken's son Jeff pointed out the Red Flag unit to us when we visited him in his office on Nellis Air Force Base near Las Vegas. There were some great in-flight shots from inside the cockpit during the mock combat flights.

Tonight we had a final campfire before the storm strikes. Wait--actually the rain did start, but it was a gentle shower, so we just got out the umbrella and rain jacket and waited the brief shower out. Meanwhile we did some laundry, including Sweetie's beds, so we can start off fresh tomorrow.
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In the Shop

Today we had an 11 a.m. appointment at Best Buy RVs in Springfield to get several things worked on. They are an authorized service center for Dometic, and the most important item was a toilet that's been causing us problems for months. We got to spend the day at this dealership and got to know the workers who were especially taken by Sweetie.

The first news we had was that they had to order a part--it would come in by UPS around 3 p.m. Okay, so we have some time to kill in the visitors' lounge.....

Meanwhile, they did manage to install a replacement courtesy light outside the door. We had received this part, along with an actuator arm for one of our ceiling vents, from Peterson, our manufacturer. Well, the mechanic reported that Peterson had sent us the wrong actuator arm--it was for a hand crank vent, and the one we needed was electrically operated. They also installed some struts on a cabinet door we had bought during our visit to Smith Center. We hung the door but somehow couldn't get the struts to fit properly.

When the toilet part finally arrived, we had high hopes of being on our way shortly. We planned to go over to Dayton and boondock at a Walmart near the Air Force Museum. Unfortunately, the tech determined that an earlier repair person had installed a bent brass rod, and the toilet could not be fixed. A new one had to be ordered from Elkhart and would arrive on Friday afternoon.

So back to Buck Creek State Park. Our site was still available

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Birthday!

Today is my birthday--always wonderful to be reminded that I'm loved 8-) It started out a bit gray and rainy, but the sun managed to break through. We played three games of Through the Desert, and as is only fitting, I won two (points for longest caravans, reaching oases, stopping at waterholes....). We got out on our bikes and rode through the park one last time before we leave here tomorrow. Ken got me a peach pie, so we will have pie a la mode to celebrate.

When I took Sweetie for her walk, the western sky was pink above the dark trees, there were children's voices in the distance, and the crickets and cicadas were in full chorus. I have much to be thankful for, and the love of my family and friends is at the top of my list.

We also made it out to go shopping. One of the things we found was a hitch lock with a cable to secure our bikes. We had a locking hitch pin before, but no real way to lock the bikes on to the new hitch, so that's just what we needed.

We put a couple of loads of laundry on--the camp laundromat is very nice, so we decided to take advantage of the opportunity before we pack up camp in the morning and head to the repair facility.

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From Berlin to Springfield

We left Berlin on Wednesday, 9/3, first stopping at Heini's Cheese Factory, where we enjoyed lots of tastes of cheeses, dips, cream cheese fudge, and other treats made here. We visited Swiss Village Bulk Foods in Sugarcreek on the way to Dover, Ohio, where we stopped in at Warther Knife Factory and had our Warther's knives sharpened for free.

This being Amish country, we saw horse-drawn buggies everywhere.

From Ohio after Cleveland

From Ohio after Cleveland

We headed south and set up camp at Salt Fork State Park, just outside of Cambridge, Ohio.

That evening we watched some of the Republican convention, including Sarah Palin's speech. She obviously is a great speaker and had an electrifying effect on the convention attendees. We found much of what she said misleading to say the least.

The next day we went to town and did our laundry and explored a bit. Cambridge is on US 40, the Historic National Road (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Road). We plan to follow the National Road west to St. Louis before heading south to the Ozarks. US 40 follows the path of the first macadam surfaced road which started in Cumberland, Maryland, and opened the west to new settlers and travelers. We would like to use "red roads" rather than interstates where we can, because of the more leisurely pace and more interesting scenery.

On Friday we went to the camp office to ask if we could stay another day or two at Salt Fork, but someone had reserved the site we were on, so we moved on to Buck Creek State Park, just outside of Springfield, Ohio, which is just east of Dayton. We are enjoying Ohio state parks, because they have large sites with reasonable privacy. It's especially private now, since everyone leaves on Sunday at noon. We have only a few fellow campers and been enjoying our bike rides around the park.

Our Buck Creek campsite.

From Ohio after Cleveland

We'll stay here until Wednesday, when we have an appointment to have some minor warranty work done on our rig, then head over to Dayton to visit the Wright Patterson Air Force Museum. That means we'll be here to celebrate Lee's birthday on Tuesday.


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Ohio's Amish Country

We moved from Berlin Center, Ohio, to the village of Berlin; which is identified with the Amish and Mennonite people of Ohio.

The village of Berlin was laid out in 1816, and is the oldest existing village in Holmes County. John Swigert, a native of Berlin, Germany arranged for 108 lots to be laid out along an east and west street and a north and south street. Folklore suggests that Swigert chose the site of Berlin because its elevation, the highest in Holmes County, made its defense more feasible in case of an attack by Indians.

We went to the Amish & Mennonite Heritage Center for an interpretive tour of Behault (We're told that means keep or remember.), a stunning 265-ft circular mural depicting Amish & Mennonite history. The tour featured a 30-minute presentation of the elements of history depicted in the mural.

The Heritage Center gift shop had oodles of baskets for sale--all made in the area.

From Ohio after Cleveland

Then we loaded our bikes into the truck and drove to the town of Millersburg to a point where we could pick up the the Holmes County Trail. We biked a few miles north from Millersburg and back. This multi-purpose trail covers several miles. One 8-foot lane of is paved with asphalt for biking. The other lane is paved with something called "chip and seal" for horse-drawn vehicles and horseback riding. The different lanes are identified by signs posted every so often along the way.

From Ohio after Cleveland

But the horses have done a good job of their own identifying which lane is theirs.

From Ohio after Cleveland

This trail is a Rails-to-Trails project. The Rails-to-Trails Conservancy is a nonprofit organization working to preserve unused rail corridors by turning them into recreational trails. Their mission is to create a nationwide network of trails from former rail lines and connecting corridors. The goal is building healthier places for healthier people.


We ended the day with dinner in Berlin at the Boyd & Wurthmann restaurant. This is a family-owned business that prides itself on being "where the locals eat." They advertise that they have Amish cooks turning out homestyle food, including a large variety of homemade pies. We split a veal parmesan entree and wrapped up the meal with pie and ice cream. We tried the peach (Lee) and apple (ken) pies. Both were great!
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End of the Season

We spent the holiday watching the exodus of campers from our formerly crowded campground. By afternoon we were nearly alone. The campground was spic and span, since the camp hosts were quick to tidy up each site and sweep out the fire rings. Our evening bike ride was much quieter than it has been for the last couple of days. We celebrated our last evening here with a campfire and marshmallows. Read more!

Beaver Sighting

On our way to the supermarket we stopped to explore the Mill Creek nature preserve near Berlin Center, Ohio. We were the only people there. Everything we saw was completely natural and undeveloped. We saw a peaceful pond that we think is the home of a beaver.

We saw a mysterious dark shape moving along just under the surface of the water, with only a couple of small areas above the waterline. We kept our eyes on it as it crossed the pond. We started calling it Nessie, after the popular name of the Loch Ness monster. It disappeared with a sudden twist and a loud splash a couple of feet from a mound of sticks in the middle of the pond. After a bit it hit us--the mound looked a lot like a beaver lodge.


After dinner we took a spin around the campground on our new comfort bikes. We're gradually getting used to riding with high, wide handlebars instead of the low, narrow ones on our old mountain bikes. Our ride took us to the boat launching ramp right at sunset. There's a picnic area there, and some couples had gathered to watch the sunset.


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Labor Day weekend

We're in Berlin Center, Ohio, camping at Mill Creek campground at Berlin Lake. This is a Corp of Engineers park with fairly widely-placed sites set in the woods beside the lake and along Mill Creek.


We reserved a campsite here before last week's trip to Southern California. The idea is to stay put over the holiday weekend, when many campgrounds will be full because a lot of people are camping for the long weekend.
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A Quick Trip to Orange County

Today we wrapped up our trip to Southern California, flying back to Cleveland. We flew to Orange County last Thursday. Marlyn Evans picked us up at the airport, and we stayed at Marlyn and Ed's house. We had lunch with Marlyn and with Wes and Jenske Johnson, whose 50th anniversary celebration was on Saturday. In the evening we went to the last summer workshop put on by the Ramblin' Rogues Square Dance Club. We finished the day visiting with old friends at the Rogues "afterparty" at a pizza shop.

On Friday we visited the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art. Their main exhibit right now is the Terracotta Warriors from China. We square danced with Fun Wuns in the evening.

Saturday was a busy day. In the morning we and the Evans took a kayak tour of Newport Bay, led by volunteers for the North Bay conservation group. The Evans had arranged to help Wes and Jenske set up for their anniversary party during the afternoon, so we went to the hall with them and helped decorate. We had just an hour or so to catch a light lunch and clean up before going to the party. It was held at one of the clubhouses in a complex that used to be called Leisure World. Wes showed some great home movies of their wedding and a slide show of their life together. The music was provided by Doug Houston, and dancing included square dancing and line dancing.

After celebrating 50 years of one marriage on Saturday, we spent time on Sunday with a newly married couple. We had lunch at John's Incredible Pizza in Montclair with Ken's daughter Rebecca, granddaughter Cathy, and Rebecca's new husband and stepson, Jerry and Jerry. This was our first time to meet the Jerrys. Rebecca had a small wedding in Las Vegas a few weeks ago. Jerry's a big rig trailer mechanic, so he has some idea of the kind of hitch our fifth-wheel trailer uses.

Jerry, Jerry, Rebecca, Cathy and Ken outside of John's Incredible Pizza.


Marlyn, Ed introduced us to the Bowers Museum.


Marlyn, Ed and Lee enjoying Dana Point.
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Finishing up in Cleveland

Today we visited Lee's parents' and brother's graves in Cleveland. Her mother and both of her brothers died during the last three years. We also dropped by Century Cycles, where we bought Lee's bicycle. Her handlebars needed adjusting. While we were there we had a new mirror installed on Ken's bike. We had dinner at Kathy Martin's and spent the night at her place so she could drive us to the airport in the morning. Read more!

Cleveland Botanical Garden

We went to the Cleveland Botanical Garden this afternoon. We especially enjoyed the Madagascar Spiny Desert exhibit. Also the Costa Rica Cloud Forest exhibit, which included clouds of Costa Rican butterflies of 20 species. The flower show theme gardens were fun. Every two years, after a botanical garden flower show, local landscapers create small theme gardens or retreats the bring to life various themes of the flower show. One theme garden has a fountain in which water pours out of musical instruments.







Before going to the botanical garden, we had breakfast with Jan Martin, who had a flight into Cleveland last night. Kathy Martin, and Peggy and Helene Bockhoff were there too.
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Purple Poem

We devoted today to buying a bike for Lee and visiting the Art Museum on Cleveland. We found a suitable bike at Century Cycles in Medina.
Later we met Lee's sister-in-law Kathy at her house, and she went to the museum with us. Afterward we went to her house for dinner and to watch some of the Olympics.




We have been trying to get Lee a women's model of the Townie 21 Commuter that we got for Ken when we were in Muskegon. That bike comes equipped with fenders, a rear rack, front shocks, and lights--including a headlight powered by a generator built into the hub of the front wheel. These strike us as fitting the kind of riding we expect to do.

We had several dealers tell us they didn't have this women's version, so we emailed the manufacturer, Electra Bicycle Company, for help. They replied with the news that this model has been discontinued. So we looked for alternatives. One dealer had said they had a women's bike called the Purple Poem in stock. It's a bright purple color with poetic phrases over much of the frame. It has gearing, tires, saddle, fenders and handlebars like the Townie 21 Commuter. It does not have the rack, lights, or shocks of the Commuter. We figured we could easily add the rack and lights, and Lee decided she could do without the shocks. So we bought it.
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Fort Custer and Jazz

We explored a state recreation area just outside of Augusta and went to a dixieland jazz concert in Kalamazoo.

Fort Custer State Recreation Area
The recreation area has a number of trails for hiking, cycling, and horseback riding. We walked a trail around Jackson Hole, one of three lakes in the park. And we drove through the campground to check it out. Almost all the sites are heavily wooded, which made them attractive to us. Some of the sites are a little small for our trailer, but only a few. Most would handle our rig nicely.

Walking around the lake.

Jazz in the Park
The Kalamazoo Arts Council and the City of Kalamazoo sponsor weekly Concerts in the Park each summer. The take place in what is named Bronson Park but referred to by the locals as Church Square. Massive churches are across the street on three sides of the square.

Today's concert was by the Greater Kalamazoo Dixieland Society Jazz Band. The music was upbeat and energetic. Fun! In the park are a number of war memorials, decorative plantings, and statues. We found the whole setting very attractive. It would be nice to spend more time in Kalamazoo next time we come this way.


Sweetie was not impressed by the music.

But Lee enjoyed it
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Cruise the Gut

We spent some time in downtown Battle Creek today. We were drawn downtown by a Summer Festival of food, art, and music. The festival wasn't much, but being downtown gave us a look at some classic cars that had come to town to cruise the downtown area tonight--Cruise the Gut, as it's called. Cars have to have been built before 1976 in order to take part. This is the eleventh year for Cruise the Gut. The first year drew 300 cars. There were a lot more this year. We gave up on trying to count them.


While downtown we ran by Memorial Park, which has a much-bigger-than-life statue of Sojourner Truth. The statue was put up in 1999 to celebrate her contributions to the city's history.

Earlier today we had a disappointing experience. We had signed up for a canoe cruise around Hart's Lake, part of a conservation area between Battle Creek and Augusta. Only after we got to the lake did we find out that we were expected to bring a canoe with us. We thought this was going to be like similar outings we've had in the past; but on those the sponsors arranged to have canoes available for everyone who signed up. We took a few pictures of the lake and then went home and took out our frustration by waxing more of the trailer.
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Battle Creek

This morning we made more progress on waxing the trailer--worked on the curb side this time. One or two more sessions, and we should be done for now.

In the afternoon we visited Battle Creek's Leila Arboretum. The arboretum was more open space than we expected. Quite a variety of trees, but widely spaced. This would be a great place to walk, cycle or picnic. One intriguing area is the Peace Labyrinth, which we walked.



We also stopped by Oak Hill Cemetery, where Sojourner Truth is buried. The people of Battle Creek are very proud that she chose to life here. There's a lot of history recorded in this cemetery. The first burial here was in 1844.




The founders of both the Post and Kellogg cereal businesses are also buried here. W.C. Post has a large mausoleum. Kellogg is buried more conventionally, surrounded by family.
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Shady Bend Campground

Today we moved to a campground located in a bend of the Kalamazoo River. It's a lovely setting, but our early experience has been less than delightful. First, the mosquitoes and maybe some other bugs, are kamikaze attackers. They are out day and night, and leave welts (personal experience). On the other hand, I am looking forward to tubing the river this Saturday. The campground offers a shuttle service on the weekends. That's one of the reasons this place seemed attractive. We've paid for a week--maybe we'll go buy a screen room.




The view out our windows on the right side of the trailer.




From our rig we can look both upstream and downstream along the river.

So far we have been unsuccessful at locating the DirecTV and HughesNet satellites. The lovely shade means trees obscure the southern sky. That makes us think it might be worthwhile to buy an inclinometer--a device that is designed to help locate the dish where there is a view between the branches. Read more!

Union City

We are spending two days at a resort on Turtle Lake, a small lake south of Battle Creek, Michigan. We went for a ride on a water trike--similar to a paddle boat. It was a good way to see the turtles and the lily pads in the swimming lagoon.


We actually swam in the indoor heated pool and soaked in the hot tub. We didn't have time to take advantage of all the amenities--indoor shuffleboard, pool, ping pong, horseshoes, etc. Maybe next visit. Read more!

Dinner at Big Blue Lake

Another beautiful sunny day. Ken's sister, Romaine, drove up from her home in Allendale (about an hour away). Ken's brother, Gordon, came from a wee bit closer--actually only a little over a mile away, from the cottage. By midafternoon it was breezy and pleasant enough that we were able to eat dinner outdoors. Since it was Sunday dinner (see, I still keep track of the days of the week!), we fixed Cornish game hen with long grain and wild rice and trimmings. Gordon provided the dessert, a yummy frozen concoction that his daughter Pam had brought Saturday. After dinner we went to sit by the lake and enjoy the view of all the boaters, water skiers, etc., including a colorful parasailer. Then we said goodbye to Gord and Romaine, since we'll be moving on in the morning.

Tomorrow is moving day, so we're making our usual preparations, and some extras. Ken is securing his new bike on the bike rack and covering it, and we're getting everything buttoned up outside in case it's raining in the morning. We have so far avoided having to break camp or set up in the rain I knock on wood every time I say that. Read more!

More Michigan Visiting

On Monday Romaine had us over for dinner. On Tuesday we moved the trailer to Muskegon County's Blue Lake Park, just around the bend from brother Gord's cottage. This is an adequate campground but we've come to prefer campgrounds that have their campsite on the lakefront instead of next to the road. This place is popular with fishermen and boaters, who launch their boats from the public boat launch on the other side of the lake, and them beach them at the campground. Romaine met us at Gord's for dinner, bringing sloppy joes plus side dishes. On Saturday we had dinner at Gord's again. This time Gord's daughter Pam provided the dinner--grilled steaks and chicken. Also there for dinner were Pam's husband Jim and their three kids, plus Pam's brother Pat.


On the way to Blue Lake Park we picked up the bicycle we had bought over the phone--an Electra Townie 21 Commuter. Then on Thursday we sold our old bikes to a bike shop in Grand Haven. Now that we've bought one of the two new bikes we want, the old ones had to go.
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